A Novel AWSF Algorithm for DOA Estimation in Virtual MIMO Systems

Both Multiple Input and Multiple Output (MIMO) and Smart Antenna (SA) have been widely accepted as promising schemes to improve the spectrum efficiency and coverage of mobile communication systems. This paper addresses the issue of Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation in Virtual MIMO (VMIMO) systems which adopt SA simultaneously. First of all, we propose a VMIMO scheme for DOA estimation in which a set of User Equipments (UEs) are grouped together to simultaneously communicate with the Base Station (BS) on a given Resource Block (RB). In this scheme, the BS has multiple antennas and can estimate DOA of each UE in the group simultaneously. However, in practical environment because of reflection and refraction of signals, the received signals may be coherent. It is desirable that the DOA estimation in VMIMO could provide high resolution when the number of independent signals is unknown, which can not be achieved by existing algorithms. In order to solve this problem, we propose an Automatic Weighted Subspace Fitting (AWSF) algorithm that can detect the number of independent signals automatically and show accurate DOA estimation. Then with consideration of computational cost and sampling cost while using the AWSF algorithm, we propose a utility factor to determine the optimal number of UEs in VMIMO scheme, i.e., the order of VMIMO. Finally, the performance of the proposed AWSF algorithm and the efficiency of the utility factor criterion are demonstrated by simulations.